As the Austrian National Bank (OeNB) announced on Thursday, Austria’s private financial assets have fallen for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.
In particular, the unfavorable price developments of equities and mutual fund shares led to significant capital losses in the first half of 2022, but a significant part of the funds continued to flow into these forms of investment, according to the Austrian currency watchdog.
Saving and investing significantly reduced
Deposits, on the other hand, only built up to a small extent. “Since the start of the pandemic, households have significantly shifted their investment focus in favor of stocks and mutual fund shares,” the SNB said.
She calculated: Austrian households invested 24.2 billion euros in 2021, slightly less than in the previous year (28.3 billion euros). In the first half of 2022, financial investment of EUR 7.2 billion reached approximately the level of the same period in 2019. The financial wealth of the household household sector at the end of the first half of 2022 amounted to EUR 799 billion, 3.4 percent lower than that at the end of 2021.
Source: Krone
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